Disease Fighters

A look at where the genome breakthrough is
now leading researchers

By

Arthur Fisher

Updated Nov. 6, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET

Where does science go from here?

Last summer, after 10 years of effort, two teams of researchers all but completed a rough draft of the human genome, the string of three billion chemical units that contain the "blueprint" for a human organism: everything from eye color to a predisposition to baldness or breast cancer.

"This is a milestone in biology unlike any other," said Francis S. Collins, the director of...